Thomas Charles' Church and Sunday School (1785)
Charles began to teach some children from Bala in his house on Sunday evenings. Since his house soon became too small for the number of children who wanted to be taught, the Calvinistic Methodists said he could use their chapel. Sometime at the end of 1784 Charles began to preach for the Calvinistic Methodists; in December he was preaching at the Association meeting at Bent Uchal near Ruthin. He later wrote that he had plans to go to England to work, presumably because no position was offered him in Wales. But bit by bit he got so far into the itinerant work in Wales that he then could not leave it. In April 1785 he wrote that “The fields here all over the country are white for harvest. Fresh ground is daily gained. Whole neighbourhoods, where the word has been heretofore opposed, call aloud for the gospel. Thousands flock to hear: and many in different parts of the country, we have good reason to believe, are effectually called.Whilst the prospects here continue so promising, I cannot in conscience quit the field here and remove to another place.” It appears that the Lord needed to get him unemployed so as to lead him into his life’s work; getting him out of the Established Church so that he could work more broadly across the Principality. Charles was not the only lover of the Established Church to be forced out; Daniel Rowland was forced out of his parish and William Williams (see this website) of Pantycelyn was refused ordination as priest. There were others also who were rejected by the Church they loved.
Additional Information
The Sunday School was to the left of the Chapel